Ernest F. Ledbetter Family Collection
![[Pastor Eating Dinner still]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/6/8/80123_ca_object_representations_media_6890_large.jpg)
Series In this Collection
Collection Items
![[Party]](https://collections.chicagofilmarchives.org/media/cfa/images/6/8/59421_ca_object_representations_media_6897_large.jpg)
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Series I: Films by Ernest Ledbetter
- Blank No Good
- Europe / Isreal
- First Picture / Gaither's House / Rev. Car -
- [Party]
- Pastor Eating Dinner
- Pastor's Birthday 1964 - 1
- Pastor's Birthday 1964 - 2
- Pastor's Birthday 1964 - 3
- 1 - Hogs & babies & sheep
- 2 - Horses etc
- 3 - Car race etc
- 3 in Bed / Bad!
- 4 - Springfield / [Wan] & Ernie / Mildred Milking Cow
- 4th July - 1972 with the children No. 1
- 4th July - 1972 with the children No. 2 / Tony on Toilet
- 5 - Springfield / Capitol / Hotel, People
- 6 - Back yard & neighbors / Eulah & Alphonse / Aunt Louise / Melvin
- April 1984 / [???] 26 / Lydia 25 / Naomi Monyetta / 16 mo 8 yrs / Films around the house
- Aug 1984 / Pastor Anniversary / Kids on the back porch / Lydia in the bed
- Aunt Louise / [Irean] / Melvin
- Blank
- Charlene House / Christmas 84-85?
- Hanks House / "Break Dancers"
- Insect Kingdom / Naiomi on the Pot sleep / Family Zoo Trip
- Life on Another Planet or Outer Limits
- Messed-Up
- [Mike] in back yard
- Mom's club #1
- Mom's club #2
- Must check - Blank
- No Church
- OK, Mom & Van
- "Ray" Family Christmas / Dorothy & Michael's House
- Sunday May 6, 1984 / Family / Kitchen and living room
- Suprise Party for Charline
- [Unlabeled]
- [Unlabeled]
- [Unlabeled]
- [Unlabeled]
Series II: Films by Ernest Ledbetter Jr.
Ernest Franklin Ledbetter was born on February 12, 1901 in Marianna, Arkansas. He left Arkansas at an early age and lived for some time in St. Louis, Missouri, eventually moving further north to Chicago. There, he worked as a laborer and owned a barbecue restaurant before being called into ministry, serving first at the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church before becoming the leader of the Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church in 1939.
At the time of Pastor Ledbetter's arrival at Metro, the church was located near the intersection of N Oakley Blvd and W Warren Blvd on Chicago's West Side. Not long after his arrival, the church moved a short distance to its present day location in a former Christian Science temple at 2151 W Washington Blvd. The sanctuary of the new building had a capacity of 2000, and the seats were often full as the population of the West Side expanded with the arrival of new residents from the south via the Great Migration.
Rev. Ledbetter had an active ministry. He was involved with the National Baptist Convention and preached at revivals around the United States. He also travelled to South America, France, Egypt, and Israel.
In 1953, photographer Gordon Parks spent time at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church for an assignment for Life magazine. Though Parks's essay and photographs were ultimately not published by Life, they have since been published by the Gordon Parks Foundation.
Rev. Ledbetter and his wife Mildred Ledbetter Guyton had eight children: Anita, Charlene, Cecilia, Lorraine, Sharon, Patricia, Vanessa, and Ernest Ledbetter, Jr.
On September 8, 1969, a few weeks before he would have celebrated his 30th anniversary as pastor at Metro, Rev. Ledbetter suddenly passed away while travelling to that year's meeting of the National Baptist Convention. The Chicago Daily Defender wrote, "[Rev. Ledbetter's] passing ended a productive ministry of thirty years in which people of differing racial and social backgrounds, during an era of tension triggered by change, were aided in remaking a neighborhood of brotherhood." (Chicago Daily Defender, 9/20,1969)